Man Overboard!!!

Since my father was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer (almost two years ago) there has been little attention paid to the family speed boat. I guess it really started a good 5 years ago when AJ moved to Milwaukee with Anna to start his new career. And to be honest the use dwindled probably even earlier than that when he was at school in DePere at St. Norbert College. The point I am trying to make (hahaha) is that the boat has not been used much in the last 10 years. When we were kids the summer days was filled with going out on the bay doing some tubing, skiing and knee boarding. But as we got older our schedules got harder and harder to coordinate and we just never went out on it. Although Dad’s chemo treatment took care of a lot if the cancer, it also did some major damage to his body leaving him pretty weak and frankly not interested in trying to pull the boat out of the water with just my mom as a spotter. For the last year or so my mom has been pushing him to sell it and then this Spring when he decided it was time to sell, she wasn’t so sure--- separation anxiety is my guess. So I listed it on craigslist for them in the hopes that we might find just the right buyer for the boat. Now sometimes craigslist can be full of creeps that are out to make a buck so you never know what you are going to run into. Other times there are genuine buyers just looking for a great deal. These people were super nice and genuinely interested in buying the boat. AJ was home one weekend and took the couple out for a test run. It turns out that their vehicle (which they had just bought) was not able to pull the 18 footer out of the water… but they wanted the boat badly. So they went back to the dealership (who FYI informed them that the vehicle they purchased could totally pull any boat- wrong) and asked for a new car. Who does that??? But guess what--- it worked! They showed up with a new SUV and drove off with a brand new boat which left dad with some money is his pocket. He even gave AJ and I a commission in the sale which was not expected but total bonus for us both. The weekend before they sold it, my parents took it for one last spin to capture the memory that would have to last them for a while. Little Bella Bean has never been on a speedboat so they figured there was no better time than the present. She totally loved it! But my mom said it made her so nervous to have her in that boat on the water that it helped confirm for her that it was time to let the speedboat go… and so they did  :)